1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to legacy application modernization systems and more specifically it relates to a legacy application rehosting system for operating a legacy operating system application on modern operating systems without substantially rewriting the legacy operating system application.
2. Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the related art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such related art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Businesses today are still using old computing platforms to run software applications that are important to their business. For example, the IBM® AS/400 is a computer system developed in 1988 as a midrange computer for general business use. The acronym “AS” stands for “Application System”. The IBM® AS/400 utilizes the OS/400 operating system to form the computing platform that runs various software applications. The AS/400 is “object-based” where everything is an object versus object-orientated where everything is a file.
There is a need to utilize legacy applications developed for old computing platforms (e.g. the IBM® AS/400® platform) to modern computing platforms (e.g. UNIX®, LINUX®, WINDOWS®) and data migrated to newer databases (e.g. ORACLE®, MS SQL®). Legacy modernization (a.k.a. software modernization) involves the conversion, rewriting or porting of a legacy system to a modern computer platform which is very costly and time consuming. The following options are currently available for legacy modernization. “Migration” involves utilizing automated parsers and converters to migrate from one operating system to another operating system. “Re-engineering” involves rebuilding legacy operating system applications on a new computing platform usually by adopting service orientated architecture (SOA). “Rehosting” involves running the legacy operating system applications on a new computing platform with no major changes using middleware such as rehosting mainframe applications on a UNIX® or WINTEL computing platform. An example of a commercial rehosting product currently available is TUXEDO® produced by Oracle International Corporation since 1988.
Because of the inherent problems with the related art, there is a need for a new and improved legacy application rehosting system for operating a legacy operating system application on modern operating systems without substantially rewriting the legacy operating system application.